Befriending the Dead
by enaskoritsi
Summary: .: Axel x Roxas :. Roxas died, but they sent him back. Upon waking up and opening his eyes again, he found that something was there that hadn't been before. Or rather, someone. .: AU :.
1. Through the Mirror

_A/N : _Okay, so I was watching _House_ this morning (which is a really great show, isn't it?), and this idea popped into my head, so then of course I had to write it (even though it's a little unrelated...) and miss my _House_ marathon. **:(** Title kind of stinks, but my mind told me to go with it, so whatever, ha. Oh, and this is AU. I have my ideas for this story, but as usual...

**Feedback inspires and brings faster updates**. So please review, because I adore knowing what people think, good or bad, so I can improve or continue.

_Side Note : _I'm not a doctor, and _House_ is really the only medical show I watch. I don't know medical terms, but I did research heart disease and heart attacks, and the information in here is based on that research. If it's incorrect, blame...web-md. If it's correct...then it was all me and this note doesn't exist. **;)**

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**Befriending the Dead**

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**Through the Mirror**

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_"Move! Get out of the way! If we don't get to the ER this man is going to die!"_

_"Shut up! We're all dying in here!"_

Roxas couldn't think; there was nothing but the blinding pain in his chest, squeezing and crushing everything inside of him. He kept his eyes closed, the world spinning and dipping whenever he dared to open them, but he could feel the scratchy sheets they had placed them on, how the gurney screeched and stumbled like an open coffin.

_"What's wrong with him?"_

_"He's having a heart attack, Doctor."_

The way they asked, with the complete weariness and almost nonchalant attitude that told him they had seen too many just like him...it caused his stomach to twist into all kinds of horribly nervous knots. His skin felt clammy, and for a moment all he could concentrate on was the uncomfortable feeling of sweat dripping from his forehead down his face.

_"Sir, can you hear me? Can you talk?"_

There were hands all over him, doing heaven knows what, touching and probing with prying, cold fingers. Roxas tried to remember any medical programs he had ever seen, hoping to figure out what they were trying to do. One was on his wrist, another by his neck, and he fumbled in the fog. Were they trying to find a pulse?

_"How long has it been?"_

_"We got there half an hour after his brother called, took another to get here, so an hour at the least."_

_"Why did it take you so long!"_

_"There was a lot of traffic! An ambulance can't fly you know!"_

An hour? Roxas recalled slipping out of his chair, his head cracking against the floor and probably leading to the splitting headache he had now. Sora had been screaming at him, but the rushing in his ears had seemed more important at the time. Other hands, less impartial and plastic than the ones on him now, had carried him somewhere...Then there was just time, moving a few centimeters every few seconds on a makeshift bed, a voice whispering that things would be okay, fine, when Roxas knew for sure things would not.

_"Okay, he still has a...reasonable pulse, racing but-"_

_"Reasonable? What kind of doctor are you-"_

_"How did he get in here? Get him out into the waiting room! He shouldn't be here for this!"_

_"I'm his brother! I'm staying here with him!"_

_"Listen, just come with me okay? I'll tell you what's going on, keep you updated. We'll take care of your brother."_

Sora? He could hear his voice through the tirade of the stern voice calling for orders, footsteps falling heavily all around, like thunder. It sounded like they were taking him away. Roxas wasn't sure, but he thought he could feel a tiny, melancholy smile twitch on his lips before dripping off dead. He didn't want Sora to see this. He knew Sora, and he also knew he couldn't handle watching his brother die.

_"We need to open the blocked arteries. That should get the blood flowing again. Get me anesthesia, now!"_

_"Doctor-"_

_"I'm going to perform an angioplasty-"_

_"Doctor!"_

For the first time, Roxas became aware of the needles pricking his arms, the stiff sensation of something foreign in his throat, and the loudest beeping he had ever heard. It was like a miniature explosion every few seconds, thundering and screeching. With a small jolt of surprise, Roxas realized it was repeating itself faster and faster, more quickly each moment that passed until finally...it was completely gone, just one continuous roar.

_"He's flatlining!"_

Confusion bubbled around him. The pain was gone, replaced by a sense of complete and utter nothingness. He couldn't feel anything, wasn't breathing. The noises had vanished, as well as the cheap bed that had been beneath him, keeping him grounded. He hadn't opened his eyes, but the only thing he could somehow see was white.

"Hello, Roxas."

A new voice echoed around him, but it bellowed somehow gently instead of hurting his head. It didn't sound like the doctors, or anyone he knew, and yet it felt familiar in a way, even though he was sure he had never heard the tone before; at least not out-loud.

"Should we wake him up-"

"Send him back."

"What?"

"Let's send him back."

The first voice sounded kind, approachable, someone who could be trusted. The perplexity multiplied and consumed him, and yet there was no trace of fear. Just wonder and curiosity. The second though...it was slow, deep, and sterile, like the doctors who had tried and failed to save his life.

"We can't just bring him back to life! He's touched death! The results, the consequences-"

"I know what's going to happen. He can handle it."

The first voice sounded pleasantly amused, supportive, the way his parents had talked to him sometimes when he wasn't sure if he'd past his next test, win the soccer championship.

"What if he can't?"

"Don't trouble yourself; the boy can."

"What about the others? Humans aren't meant to see-"

"Relax, son, calm down. Maybe humans aren't meant to, not all of them, but maybe he's a little special."

"Special? It'll drive him insane!"

The second voice seemed so furious, spewing out heated words that almost seemed to burn. Roxas wanted to turn away from the sensation, but his body felt like marble, the same immobile feeling but ghostly weightless.

"I do everything for a reason. Let's have no more questions, or they'll really think he's dead."

There was some humored laughter, grand and robust, lined with pure, innocent entertainment and joy.

"It'll be good for them, the both of them. It's what he was meant for."

The other snorted, indignant.

"Oh, I'm sure he'll agree with you."

Roxas couldn't see it, but he was sure the first one smiled as a hand was pressed to his forehead.

"Alright, Roxas. Time to wake up."


	2. Complaints of the Saved

_Author's Note : _Aw man, my whole house lost power, and since the only thing with any juice was my computer (macbooks ftw!), I decided to write a little. Since I actually have some ideas for this, I gave it a shot.

Thanks to those who reviewed. It just means a lot as someone attempting to work at being some sort of writer. I hope that you choose to review again, and those who didn't decide to leave me a comment.

Oh! And because I was dumb and forgot this last time...

_Disclaimer : _I do not own Kingdom Hearts. If I did, I'd get them to stop making Roxas so short it makes Axel look like a pedophile. Because he's not. **:)**

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**Complaints of the Saved**

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"He's going to be alright, right Doc?"

Roxas squeezed his eyes shut tightly, trying to keep the wave of waking from crashing down heavily on his head. The voice was painfully loud and curious, and if he could concentrate, he would probably find that he knew it's speaker, but everything was just so fuzzy and far away.

"Yes," a soothing but practiced voice spoke, 'They got him here in time. He's going to be- I think he's waiting up!"

"Roxas!" There came a rush, slaps of footfalls that broke the serenity almost spitefully, and then came the poking. Fingers pressing into his arm, a hand shaking it this way and that while I voice repeated like a mantra,

"Roxas! Roxas! You okay? Are you there? How do you feel? You jerk, do you realize you almost died-"

"Sora," Roxas heard himself all but croak, the tirade of words coming to a satisfying halt. "Shut up."

After hearing the abashed pause that followed, he added,

"Please."

The silence broke, and like water rushing from a cracked dam came a flood of babbling that did its best to cause Roxas' head to explode.

"I'm so glad you're okay!" Sora shrieked, latching his arms around him and squeezing Roxas so tightly he was almost prepared to have another heart attack.

"Whoa, whoa!" the doctor suddenly reemerged, taking Sora gently by the shoulders and guiding him back towards the seat Roxas saw was located by the hospital bed. "He needs to stay calm. We don't want to risk any complications with his condition."

"Oh, of course," Sora grinned sheepishly, scratching the back of his head with slight embarrassment while the doctor just raised her eyebrows with a small smile of amusement.

Appreciating the change in Sora's attention, Roxas took the moment to notice the needles inserted into his veins, the IV dripping something clear and ambiguous into his bloodstream. There was a machine beeping steadily at the side of his bed, electric green jagged lines making cragged mountains against the black monitor.

"Mr. Lycoris?" the doctor finally gave her attention towards the man who had just awakened from a deadly sleep with a grasp that had threatened to hold him forever.

She smirked, not unkindly, as she went on, "Nice to see you back with us. I'm Dr. Karasi. You gave us all quite a scare there."

Roxas watched her through heavy eyes, trying to focus but failing slightly when the edges of her pale face grew a little fuzzy.

"A scare?" he managed after a few seconds, watching the doctor adjust the black glasses over her matching eyes, brushing some dark hair over her shoulder before taking the clipboard that had been resting on a hook by the door to his room. Sora watched her movements nervously, his spiky brown hair jiggling as he tapped his foot with anxiety. His blue eyes darted around, from the doctor to Roxas, back and forth enough to times to make Roxas dizzy. His brother had never been skilled at handling stressful situations, Roxas remembered, thinking of how his mother always liked to tell the story of Sora throwing up before his school play. He laughed a little, wondering how watered down his mind must be by the medication to find something so trivial funny at a moment like this.

"That's putting it mildly Mr.-"

She paused when he muttered out to call him Roxas with a weak smile, straightening her white coat with careful professionalism.

"Roxas," she went on, flipping a few pages on his chart before finding what she was looking for. "You flatlined."

She glanced at him over her glasses, all humor gone and replaced with complete seriousness.

"That means you died. For almost a full minute," taking a deep breath, she deadpanned. "It's a miracle you're even alive."

"A miracle..." Roxas repeated, still dazed, letting his head fall to the side when it was too much to focus on holding it straight. His view became jumbled for a moment, but when everything resurfaced, he caught a glimpse of something red. Brow furrowed, he contemplated that he might be hallucinating when a spark of green accompanied the haze, like a messy parody of Christmas.

"Roxas? Are you paying attention to me?"

Roxas snapped his head back towards the doctor, who was now glowering at him with frustration.

"This is your life here, young man! This information I'm giving you could determine if you live another year or collapse on the street tomorrow!"

Young man? Roxas wondered darkly. He was almost nineteen. Well, eighteen and a quarter.

"We conducted an angioplasty for about two hours after we managed to get your heart beating again," Dr. Karasi grumbled, writing a few scribbles down on the papers in her hands.

"I'm prescribing you Bumetanide," she explained, sighing at his completely clueless expression, which Sora copied perfectly. "It'll keep your blood pressure steady and regulate your heart beats."

"We're keeping you here overnight," she ordered, her scowl showing there was no room for arguments or negotiations. "We'll keep an eye on you to make sure you fully recover. Once we release you in the morning, I'm going to recommend you move about your schedule as you would normally."

"It's best for you to keep moving," she elaborated with consideration. "Exercise is good for the body after a case like this, so if anything else, do more of it. Don't hole yourself up. There may be some residual chest pain, but it changes with each case so it's about a fifty-fifty chance."

"Any questions?" she prompted, but Roxas could only shake his head while his thoughts swam. Everything the doctor said echoed through his brain, but none of it seemed to register. Sparing a hopeful glance at where Sora was watching the doctor attentively, he hoped that his brother could relay the information later.

"No," he replied through his dry lips, watching the doctor nod and stride towards the doorway.

"Alright, I'll give you two some time alone," Dr. Karasi finally seemed to lighten up, giving them both an understanding stare. "You have about fifteen minutes until visiting hours end though, so you'll have to come back in the morning to pick him up."

Sora grinned cheerfully, reassured by her words and somewhat stern brand of comfort.

"Thanks!" he waved as she disappeared around the corner, giving Roxas only enough time to blink before appearing back at his side.

"Are you really okay, Roxas?" Sora questioned seriously, and Roxas started; it was so rare to see Sora without a pleasant smile on his face. "How'd it happen?"

"I don't know," Roxas answered hoarsely, the delirious fog finally rubbing off. "There was...just this pain..."

His hand instinctively went to his chest, and he stared down at it. It was so surreal, so...odd. One minute had been fine, just an average teenage boy trying to save enough money for college, and so quickly, he had died.

He had _died_.

"I was dead," Roxas whispered, the realization finally settling in while Sora tensed with visible discomfort. "Dead."

For a moment, his heart had given out. He'd...flatlined, that's what the doctor said, right? The organ that was supposed to keep him going, it was unbelievable weak, unstable.

It could stop again, right? Just like that, like a snap of the fingers. He'd be alive one second, dead the next, and maybe there wouldn't be any electric paddles to bring him back that time. What if it did?

Paranoia crawled at the corner of Roxas' mind. Was that pain in his chest? In his arm? It was! No wait...It was just Sora.

"Roxas? Can you hear me?" Sora frowned, and it was only now that Roxas noticed the worry lines etched into his brother's face. "Wow, how much stuff do you have you on?"

Roxas forced out a weak laugh, trying to soothe both their worries but feeling a twist of knots settle in the pit of his stomach.

"I'm fine," he told the other, using his elbows to push himself up to a sitting position, tired of the vulnerable feeling that consumed him when he was lying down, so weakly, in front of others.

"You didn't tell Mom and Dad, did you?" Roxas abruptly questioned, the thought coming to him for the first time during the whole ordeal. Sora shifted his eyes guiltily, and Roxas groaned, letting his head fall back onto the pillows.

"Come on, Roxas! I had to tell them! They're our parents," Sora tried to excuse himself in a rush, and inside Roxas knew he was right. Still, that didn't help that fact that he knew he'd be bombarded with questions and worry once they arrived.

"Are they coming?" he asked finally, and Sora nodded with an apologetic wince.

"Yeah, they're flying out..." he mumbled, brightening optimistically when he added, "It'll take them a few days though!"

Sighing deeply, Roxas smiled at his brother, meaning it when he said, "Thanks, Sora."

Sora practically bubbled over with relief, but before he could say anything more, a nurse appeared at the door, entering the room almost silently.

"Excuse me, sir," she pardoned herself politely, "Visiting hours have ended. You may return tomorrow at nine to see how he's doing."

With nothing more, she abandoned the room, and Sora pounced before Roxas could object. He squeezed him tightly, giving one of the hugs Sora had become famous for as Roxas was sure he felt his bones shift, probably even crack.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Roxas," Sora chirped, heading towards the exit with some reluctance in his step. "You better be fine when I get back!"

Roxas nodded before he disappeared, dropping his heads in his hands when silence came blessedly, the headache that had formed being the only pounding sound in the room. Rubbing his eyes wearily, he lifted them to meet an unfamiliar pair of acid green.

He jolted, causing the bed to screech backwards a few places and the needles to shift painfully in his bruised veins. There was someone leaning against the wall straight ahead, staring at him with an intensity so focused that Roxas wasn't sure how he hadn't noticed it before. His mind brought back that cloud of red from earlier and, glancing at the man's hair, he realized that he must've been in the room the entire time.

Questions cartwheeled around his pulsating skull. Why hadn't Sora said something, or even the doctor? Didn't they think it was weird for a stranger to be in his room? He couldn't be a doctor; he was wearing casual clothes, just a plain red t-shirt with black cargo pants. Was he some sort of janitor, no couldn't be, even they had a uniform.

"Er..." he racked his mind, trying to find something appropriate to say. "Hi. Who are you?"

The man's eyes snapped out of whatever trance they had been in, the viridian color glowing with what appeared to be utter shock. His mouth moved in what appeared to be words, but Roxas heard nothing else but the beeping of the machines around him.

"Hello?" he probed again, watching the "visitor" stride slowly from one side of the room to the other. His steps were slow and deliberate, but his face remained faced towards Roxas, fixated at how his blue eyes followed his movements. The man's face fell slack in what seemed to bewilderment, and Roxas watched him scratch his head in what appeared to be a lost gesture.

Trying once more, he questioned, "Are you okay?" Due to his somewhat unconventional responses, Roxas began to figure more and more that this was a patient who had escaped whatever portion of the hospital housed the mentally damaged. The man seemed to almost sensed his thoughts, for an angry frown deepened into his face while he stepped forward unabashedly.

Roxas pushed himself to the opposite edge of the bed in a hurry, unsure what to do when the intruder stopped at his bedside, mouthing something again angrily. When Roxas didn't respond, he added hand gestures to his one-sided conversation.

Eventually, his shoulders slumped in what appeared to be a sigh, and he pointed a finger at Roxas, forming a word with his lips.

You.

Next he brought a finger to his eyes, mouthing out,

See.

Finally, he brought a hand to his chest with the motion of the word,

Me.

"Uh...yeah," Roxas affirmed unsurely, observing how the poisonous eyes widened almost comically at the revelation. "Am I not supposed to?"

The man spun around on his heels, his body shaking in what Roxas guessed was laughter before sprinting back to the other side of the wall. He drew a finger past his lips in the motion of a lock and key while Roxas felt agitation begin brewing inside of him. A curious smirk was now gracing the other's lips, but before he could analyze the possible meaning behind it, the fiery-haired being cocked his head towards the doorway. Par the instruction, Roxas eyes shifted over to the space.

The nurse from earlier came back into the room, this time with a syringe placed carefully between her fingers.

"Okay dear, I need you to hold out your arm," she instructed, gesturing gently when she reached the side of his bed. "This will help you sleep and ease the pain. The medication you're on now should wear off in a few minutes, and we want to make sure you're comfortable."

"Yeah," he grunted, paying more attention to the stranger's crossed arms and unrelenting glare. "Hey would you...mind telling me who that is?"

When the nurse gave him a confused look, Roxas gestured toward the man, noticing how he seemed to be entertained by the scene. She gave Roxas a confused glance after shifting her eyes towards the wall. Stepping away from him for a moment with creases of worry in her face, realization spread over it as well as what seemed to be understanding.

"Don't worry, honey," she replied in a motherly way, injecting the rest of the fluid before dropping the needle into the garbage bin on the floor. "You just need some sleep. You've had a rough day."

Rolling his eyes towards the nurse's back as she exited was more difficult than it should've been.

"But," Roxas slurred, perplexed when he turned back to the man. The edges of his vision blurred before getting darker, moving closer to center until the redheaded stranger was all he could see. Roxas was sure he saw him wave mockingly before his eyelids slipped shut, giving him time for one last thought.

What a jerk.


End file.
